The Way of a Ninja
by Mcxynth
Summary: Sarutobi Ayame enjoyed hate. She revelled in insults. But beneath her skin of stupidity and idiotic masochism lay a hollow shell, encasing a chained chest buried with blood and nightmares. And no one knew. No one knew until the paper flowers appeared in her mailbox - bringing with them dead memories and memories of death. [Ongoing][No Romance]
1. 0 Blurb, Disclaimer, and Aphorism

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 **BLURB**

Sarutobi Ayame enjoyed hate. She revelled in insults. What else did someone like her deserve?  
The only way for her to live was to live being hated - as an assassin raised in bloodshed.

Born to kill, killed to live.

But her past had caught up to her. It's tired of her constant running away. And after so long, her beliefs are challenged.

Beneath her skin of stupidity and idiotic masochism lay a hollow shell, encasing a chained chest buried with blood and nightmares.

And no one knew. No one knew until the paper flowers appeared in her mailbox - bringing with them dead memories and memories of death.

[ _Jyllian T._ 《Mcxynth》 ]

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 **DISCLAIMER**

 ** _Gintama_** is the property of _Sorachi Hideaki_ -sensei.  
All rights to the characters and setting of the world of **_Gintama_** belong to him. Only the plot of this story, _The Way of a Ninja_ , belongs to me. So yeah, if you post parts (or whole!) of this somewhere else without my permission, be a good person and stand outside with a water bucket on your head, 'kay?

The cover image used was only edited by me, and I don't own any of the resources used.

This story is also available on Wattpad and AO3, and only these three sites as of August 4, 2018.

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 **NARRATIVE LEGEND**

 _Italics - Flashback/Past Events_

 _"Underlined Italics - Past Voices"_

Normal - Present Events

 _Italics,_ within Normal Narrative - _Sachan's Thoughts,_ she thought

(Don't worry, I'm doing my best to make it flow and read easily.)

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 **WARNINGS**

 **1\. This story is pretty dark.  
** There will be no graphic depictions of violence, but there _are_ battle scenes with blood,  
nightmares with blood, and yeah, blood - but _not_ too much.

 **2\. There is no romance here.**  
Yes, the story will be told in two point of views - Sachan's and Gintoki's -  
but there will be no romance between the two. Only friendship.

(Ofcourse, there is affection from Sachan, but we know that already and that's all.)

 **3\. This story does not reflect any of the author's personal beliefs.  
** Just putting this out there for any [potentially] big things in the future.

(More to be added as I go along writing this. :) )

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 **APHORISM**

"The way of a ninja is to live being hated."

\- Uchiha Itachi, _Naruto_

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**


	2. CHAPTER 1

_**(A/N)**_

My first Gintama fanfic on this site, yay! I'm aiming to enter this in a contest when I reach around Chapter 4, so I want to see how it will turn out... hmm.  
Again, this is only available in FFnet and Wattpad, so if anyone sees it anywhere else, please tell me. Thank you!

* * *

 **[** _ **01:**_ **Why are Paper Flowers Not Made of Paper? ]**

Sachan didn't remember growing flowers in her mailbox. She squinted at the pale, crumpled flower inside, making sure she was seeing right. Putting a finger to her chin, she thought for a possible culprit - whoever was stupid enough to give _her_ , of all people, flowers. Suddenly, she blinked and widened her eyes.

 _Could it be..._ She screamed in delight, "Gin-san, thank you!" Reaching inside, she grabbed the flower and cradled it to her chest, giggling like an insane little kid. Her mind immediately thought of places to put the flower in, or heck, frame it in. Maybe she'll have it laminated? Or, she could build an altar for it.

Then, she paused, realizing that she hadn't even looked at the flower. _Oh, crap_ , she thought. _Did I crumple it?_

She unclenched her fists, revealing a slightly more crumpled paper flower, pale and very much dead. She paused, as if doubting what she saw. She blinked multiple times, just to check if the flower was real.

But it really was a paper flower.

Her breath hitched. Closing her fists once again, she opened her mailbox and threw the flower in.

No words left Sachan's lips as she stared at the closed box. Her fists shook at her sides.

 _"Papa, why is the house full of white flowers?"_

 _Shut up._ Sachan shook her head, ridding her thoughts of a young child's voice. She gritted her teeth, annoyed. _Sachan, get a grip._ She turned and rushed into her house, but the silence that welcomed her there only served to irk her further. It enveloped her, inviting more voices and thoughts she'd rather not hear or think about.

Sachan paced around her room, wildly shaking her head. She forced herself to laugh and talk - or more like emit high-pitched gibberish - just to deafen the voices awake inside her head. She was well aware that her neighbors would be wary of a mad Amanto living beside them, but she didn't stop laughing. Or gibbering. She lived alone in her house anyway, so to hell with them. As she moved about, she stubbed her toe on a table leg.

"Oww!" She hissed, adding curses while she crouched and massaged her toe. A white paper caught her eye. Turning her head to her table, she saw the picture of the Odd Jobs that she was cutting last night, to cut out Gintoki and add it to her collection. Her eyes immediately flitted to the wall beside her bed, full of the silver-haired samurai's pictures.

Without hesitation, she changed her clothes and left her house, focused on locating her perfect distraction.

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Sachan didn't have to wait longer. The Odd Jobs were on their way home, making some noise as usual as they argued about where their payment would go. From her perch on the rooftop, she pounced.

"Gin-saaan!"

In a flash, Gintoki took out his sword and raised it in the air, the tip pointed up. He didn't even look her way as she ' _gah_ '-ed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her stomach. She rolled around as the trio stared at her.

"Ah, Gin-san, you - _ouch, damn it,_ " she mumbled while groaning in pain, "never fail - _oww_ \- to disappoint - _as always_ \- that hurts!"

"Sachan, you kinda messed that up at the end-aru," Kagura said.

"Oi, stalker." Sachan looked up to see Gintoki's scowl. "I was having enough problems just deciding how our pay is spent-"

"How about try _saving_ it?!" Shinpachi exclaimed.

"-and now you decide to add to my problems, huh?" He pointed his sword at her face. As always, as she stared up at him, her heart beat faster. Her face warmed up. "And why the hell are you blushing?!"

Sachan sat up, one hand to her chest like a damsel in distress. "Y-you could," she paused, looking up at him through her eyelashes, "spend it on me."

Gintoki karate-chopped her head. "Like hell I would."

"Kya!" she squealed, her face blushing even further.

"And shut up." Annoyed even more, Gintoki kicked her aside into a nearby stall. "Kagura, Shinpachi, let's go," he said as he turned and sprinted to Snack Otose. "First one home gets all four thousand yen!"

"Ah, Gin-chan, you cheater!" The little redhead, Kagura, clutched her parasol and ran after him.

"Bye, Sachan-san." Shinpachi glanced at Sachan before following her. "No fair, Gin-san!"

As the two caught up to Gintoki - or in Shinpachi's case, tried to, with all his strength - Sachan got up from the remains of the abandoned stall she had crashed into. She felt around the broken wooden boards and bent nails for her glasses, ignoring the occasional scratch and prick. The moment she picked it up, and right before she put it on, she heard the loud bang of a closing door.

She didn't flinch, too used to the sound. In fact, having met with its full force upfront multiple times already, she expected to hear it approximately eight seconds earlier. Giggling, she fixed her glasses on and stood up. She stretched her arms and looked at the sky, squinting and shielding her eyes from the light.

 _And with that, my day's now a good day,_ she thought.

"Miss, stop acting like some main heroine and move. You're in the way," a gruff voice said from behind her and she moved aside, giving way for two laymen carrying piles of wood. They continued conversing about their company relocating somewhere and whining about extra work, but to be frank to herself, Sachan didn't care and walked away.

She contemplated heading to break into the Odd Jobs - and see Gintoki again - but decided against it and headed to the nearest alley. With feline grace, she manuevered her way up the walls and up to the rooftop, soundlessly landing with her body crouched low.

Taking in the sight of the district's houses and Edo's tall buildings - and scrunching her nose at the putrid smell of garbage - her mind thought of other people she can see. Or bother, whichever they preferred to call it.

Her sharp, glasses-enhanced eyes caught sight of a scraggly man in a red kimono, trudging along some nearby street. _Madao-san?_ she thought before shrugging. Having no alternative in mind yet, she sped to where he was, her footsteps making no sound on the old wooden rooftops.

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Several hours passed and the ninja's feet landed soundlessly on another wooden rooftop. Her eyes searched the premises, looking for more pranks she could do, but found none anymore.

She had done so much already these past few hours. She had messed with a certain man-wearing shades - or was that the other way around? - had taken away the shades and thrown it into the nearby trash. She had turned to the shades' remains and laughed at the useless human being as he ran around looking for his precious identity.

She had shot a kunai into Zenzo's hemorrhoids as the unsuspecting ninja immersed himself into his new JUMP issue. She had laughed hysterically as he curled up into a ball in the middle of the street with a bleeding arse.

She had also exposed Kondou as he "stealthily" stalked Otae, earning him two bumps on the head and a bleeding nose. Hiding herself in a nearby dark corner, she had chuckled to herself as she watched him get tortured by the violent woman.

Heck, she had even stolen Hijikata's mayonnaise-infested dessert and replaced it with natto. She had ran away, cackling to herself and throwing the bowl of dog food behind her back - which happened to land on Okita's head. This started another useless fight, to which she had watched for a while to keep herself entertained.

But now, she had nothing left to do. The sun was setting on the horizon, its orange and purple hues painting the skies, reminding her it was dusk and she had forgotten to eat her lunch.

She turned toward home and laughed to herself, recalling the annoyed expressions that donned her victims' faces. One particular one stood out the most:

Gintoki's scowl aimed at her.

It gave her a twisted sense of satisfaction, and it wasn't just because she was a masochist. It satisfied her to know that the person she had fallen in love with loathes her.

 _What a distorted mindset,_ she mused, chuckling to herself as she stood up and leapt to the rooftop across the street. It was her main principle in life to be despised - because come on, she liked it - and the man to blame for it was someone she'd rather not remember. But since she had started thinking about it now for once, never doing so ever since she had set foot in Edo, she realized her efforts for distraction were starting to rot.

A prickly twinge in her spine caused her to stop and grab a kunai stashed on her thigh. Despite the growing shadows and darkening skies, her refined senses searched for the slightest signs of sleuths and suspicious eyes.

Sachan remained crouched on the rooftop, her body unmoving but eyes alert. After a few moments of normal activity in the streets below her, she lowered her weapon and tucked it back to its place. More silent than she was earlier, she continued to her house four rooftops away.

After landing on her front yard, her eyes caught sight of the closed mailbox, a silhouette against the violet sky of dusk and dark streets. Lips pursed, she hastened toward it, grabbed the flower inside, and took off to her room. She didn't care if she crumpled it or held it too tight that the petals would fall off. Once inside her room, she threw it onto her dresser.

Then, she continued on her nightly routine - cooked, ate, bathed, and lied down. As if she wasn't upset. As if no disturbance rattled her mind.

Sachan knew what waited for her in the abyss of sleep, ready for her to close her eyes and surrender to its cruel tendrils. And they did come, when she laid her head on her pillow, what she feared would come out from the hollow, shadowed recesses of her mind:

Nightmares - awoken by a single tell-tale sign of a past she had long left behind.

* * *

 **[ Author's Note ]**

Alright, that's probably going to be the longest part of the story where we center on Sachan with so little dialogue. Phew.

How did you guys like the first chapter? Please tell me your thoughts through commenting and voting. Thank you so much!

Updates will be on Tuesdays and Fridays, GMT+8. The time won't be regular, but the days are.

I was supposed to post this last Friday, but I kinda forgot... So I posted these two parts at the same time.

Anyway, see you guys Tuesday!

 _\- Lia -_


	3. CHAPTER 2(1)

**[ _02(1):_ Ninjas Don't Always Finish the Job ]**

 _High-pitched squeals and radiant smiles filled the room as the women chattered on that warm sunny afternoon. They worked on some of their usual daily tasks - weaving, munching snacks (no, really -_ munching _), and folding clothes. It was just like any other day._

 _And just like any other day, footsteps ran towards the women's room, accompanied by loud shouts of "Mama! Mama! Come see this!"_

 _One of the women knitting paused and looked towards the sliding door. Sure enough, it slid open and revealed a young child of around ten years old. "Mama, look at this!" The child ran to her mom and showed her a fresh and new set of miniature kunais and shurikens._

 _The woman beamed and patted her child's head, slightly ruffling her lilac locks. For a second, her smile faltered, but the child never noticed._

 _Far from it actually, for her face lit up even brighter as she gave her mom a tight hug. The other women present in the room giggled at the adorable little one. Sachan looked up at the woman holding her tight, her bright violet eyes gazing excitedly at the softer, calmer shade of her mother's. "Papa gave it to me as a gift, you know? He said I'm doing really great in my ninja training, you know?"_

 _Giddiness seemed to seep out of the child's body, and her mom can't help but smile. She squeezed her daughter's cheeks. "I always knew you had it in you," she doted._

 _Sachan giggled. "Mama, keep squeezing! For some reason it feels nice."_

 _Her mom looked at her in confusion, before shaking her head and laughing. Sachan's smile seemed to enlarge at the sound of her mother's tinkling laughter. She giggled once more, settling closer to her mother's chest._

 _The other women in the room had fallen silent, watching the two with unreadable expressions. Sachan blinked, before looking back at her mom. The woman's eyes watered as she kissed her child on the forehead. Sachan wasn't able to see her mom's expression, but with the way she held her small body tight, she felt as if she was a stuffed toy about to be given away._

 _Sachan can imagine how that felt like. She lost her precious stuffed giraffe just the week before._

 _At the time, as she looked around in mild confusion, Sachan didn't know what the other women meant with their eyes. Her younger self couldn't care less. Nonetheless, she opened her mouth to ask what they were looking at when the door slid open._

 _Her dad stepped in, looking around with a calm gentleness in his fair skin. His eyes quickly found his wife and daughter while the other women awkwardly went back to work. Their eyes flitted between the masters of the household before returning to the thread and cloth they held in their hands._

 _"Hisato's back," her dad said. His voice, though gentle, still caused heads to turn unconsciously to him. "He's at the front garden. I asked him to put down his luggage in his room but he was intent on seeing his little sister." He knelt down and patted Sachan's head before lightly poking her forehead. "So stubborn. Don't be like him."_

 _Sachan grinned, the light in her eyes shimmering brighter. "Why would I want to be like older brother?" she said, mischief in her tone._

 _Her dad laughed and ruffled her hair. Standing up, he offered a hand to her. "Come. Let's see your brother." Sachan nodded and clutched his hand, letting her dad pull her up unto his arms. As they padded to the door, Sachan turned to wave at her mom whose smile was bright with what could only look like pride._

 _But right as the door blocked her view, she swore she saw the smile crumble._

 _Sachan stared at the door slowly drifting farther away, innocent confusion painted on her features. Her eyes swept past the hallway decorated with vine and flower patterns that seemed to be their family symbol. In the corner of her eye, a figure in a white and red garments appeared from an intersection. For a second, Sachan tensed and her eyes went wide, but when she saw the soft smile on her grandmother's frail features, she relaxed._

 _Her dad nodded at his mother. "Where were you, Mother?"_

 _"I wanted to take a walk for once. You know you can't keep me in my room for long," she said. Sachan glimpsed a slight shine in her grandmother's eyes, past the crinkles in its corners. Thinking it was the cunning she knew she inherited, she giggled. Her grandmother's gaze went to her. The older woman patted Sachan's hair, carressing its slightly messy lavender locks._

 _Sachan's dad chuckled and shook his head. "I know," he muttered. Gesturing to where they had come from, he asked, "Are you going to see Ayako?"_

 _The woman nodded. "And I've already talked to Hisato while walking around." She chuckled. "He's become quite the young lad, like you were all those years before."_

 _Sachan felt her dad's chest rumble as he laughed. "That's reassuring." Her grandmother smiled at that, before gazing at Sachan's eyes. Her gaze lingered longer than normal, making Sachan blink. Before she could ask, however, her grandmother turned to walk past them._

 _She shifted her body to see past her dad's shoulder and once again stared in confusion. Her grandmother's strange gaze made her remember her mom. Sachan shifted back to her original position in her dad's arms._

 _"Papa..." she said as she turned her head._

 _Her dad strode past another corner. "Yes?"_

 _"Why is..." she paused with a tiny squint in her eyes before facing his smile."Why is Mama sad?"_

 _Her dad held her gaze. Sachan didn't see anything change in his eyes. There was no curiosity nor coldness. A few seconds passed as he seemed to process what she asked. After turning another corner to the hallway leading straight to the garden, he turned away. "What do you mean?"_

 _Sachan tilted her head. "In the room, Mama looked sad before we left."_

 _Her father was silent again for a moment. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, Ayame." He then glanced back at her with a small smile._

 _Sachan blinked. The curiosity within her bubbled further at the use of her given name. "But––"_

 _A loud shout broke her prying. "Aya-chan!"_

 _Sachan turned to the garden, scowling. Her brother ambled toward them, his steps light and one hand waving at her. His eyes and tone shone with the playfulness she would've admitted she missed if he hadn't interrupted. "What? What's with that look?" Her brother grinned at her, unfazed by the annoyance clear on her features. He seemed more amused than wary._

 _Also smiling, her dad set her down on the floor. Sachan folded her arms, keeping her scowl trained on Hisato. As he held her glare and bent down to say something, her vision blurred. The wind picked up. Sachan blinked and her gut churned, but her dad and brother just stared, unfazed._

 _The clouds parted to let the sky rain down darkness around her. Sachan stepped back and reached for her dad when the blobs of darkness swallowed him and her brother. A downpour of rain followed, muffling her tiny, confused shrieks. The droplets crashing near her splashed on her body and face. Looking down, she saw red, sticky drops of wine-colored liquid trickling down her skin. She trembled. A scream settled into her throat, blocked by utter terror and confusion._

 _"Wh... What..."_

 _The flowers in their garden fell to the ground, bundle by bundle, as if being crushed by a giant unseen. The petals scattered on the now muddy and red soil. Thunder crackled in the heavens and she fell to the floor. The wind picked up, sending dirtied petals hurtling through the air in a wet tornado. Several petals stuck to her face, arms, and legs._

 _"Mama... Grandmother..." Sachan sobbed as she tried to crawl backward. "Papa and Nii-chan, where––"_

 _A tiny force slapped the side of her face, causing her to shriek. Panicking, she grabbed what stuck onto her face, partly blinding one eye. Her fingers grasped stem, leaves, and muddy petals. She peeled off the object, curling her hands around it as she sobbed at the remaining sting of its earlier slap. The wind howled in her ears as water, petal, and leaves flew about the wooden hallways._

 _A gurgling sob escaped her throat once more. She tasted salt, water, and dirt. Cold seeped into her body, causing shivers to rock her already trembling form. She slid her butt farther backward and covered her face with one arm. Feeling a strange warmth in her palm, from what she had peeled off from her face, she slowly unfurled her fist._

 _On her hand lay a paper flower, intact and clean. In the darkness of the storm around her, it seemed to gleam._

 _Sachan froze, a desperate confusion overpowering the fear wracking her body. "What's going on?" she cried, her hand shaking as the flower remained undirtied from the chaos around her._

 _Panicking, she moved to throw it away but the stem latched itself unto her palm. Slowly, it grew longer, wrapping around her wrist. The leaves brushed her palm as the green vine crept up her arm. Its flower gazed straight into her eyes. She shrieked as she waved her arm around, but it stayed. She rubbed her arm on the wall, numb to the scratches on the wall from the storm, but the flower still grew._

 _Feeling liquid on her arm, she glanced down, shaking. Blood, sticky and warm, trickled from under the stem, now a vine, as it wrapped around her arm and creeped unto her shoulder. Blood trickled on the leaves and dripped unto the floor._

 _Her fear choked her, grappling its way up her throat. "What..." she sobbed. Her tears clouded her vision. She couldn't see the garden, the storm, and the hallway, but she could still see blood seeped into her clothes. Blood stuck unto her arm. Blood. Blood. So much blood._

 _Her throat gave way to the terror shaking from every fibre of her body, and––_

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

She screamed.

Sachan rose from the bed, her chest heaving heavy, uneven breaths. Sweat dripped down her forehead, neck, and back. Trembling, she hugged herself, disgust filling her thoughts as she felt the salty sweat on her arms and the shirt sticking to her back.

Then, a sudden downpour of sensations seeped into her nerves. She felt the same vivid trickling of warm, vicuous blood on her arm. The same curling vines wrapping around her body. The same cold. The same fear.

She shook her body, screaming and rolling around in her bed as if possessed.

Then she fell.

The welcoming pain from the floor shook off the remaining vividness of her nightmare, replacing them with a throbbing backside. Slowly, as Sachan squinted and cursed under her breath, the vines faded from her nerves. She opened her eyes, staring blankly at the tatami flooring and wall. Breath by breath, her panic settled down from hurried to calm.

After what seemed to be an hour, she hoisted herself up on one arm. Raising her other hand, she massaged her temple and closed her eyes.

 _That nightmare,_ Sachan mused, _was different._

Other nightmares she remembered were of being chased by shadow figures, being surrounded by apparitions of her past, and being mocked, sneered, and hated by the people she left behind. Sometimes there were the occasional dreams of being pushed into a pile of corpses, and being given a kunai to kill someone without control of her body.

All in all, just normal stuff.

But that one had _memories,_ even if slightly... warped.

Sachan cursed, shaking her head before sighing. She willed remaining images of her nightmare to curl up into a paper ball and threw them into a mental trash can. _Done,_ she nodded to herself and tapped her temple, _empty the recycle bin._ Then she opened her eyes, drinking in her room's furniture. When her eyes found Gintoki's pictures taped on the wall opposite her, she blanched.

Some of the pictures were peeled off, some looked clawed, while in the others, Gintoki and the Odd Jobs were almost unrecognizable. Sachan remembered rubbing the wall in her dream and cringed. The urge to fix every picture - or have them redeveloped - arose in her nerves, but the fatigue that had settled into them post-nightmare overrode it.

With a resigned sigh, she forced herself to stand, wincing at the faint cracking of her joints. She stretched her arms and twisted her waist. Once she felt all her muscles had warmed up for the day, she sighed.

After making quick work of her bed, Sachan trudged to her front yard. She didn't care about her pajamas. Her neighbors can just turn away.

Scowling and mumbling to herself - about pictures, printing fees, food, and neighbors - Sachan gripped the handle of her mailbox and almost ripped the lid off.

She froze. "You have got to be _shitting_ me."

Inside her mailbox was another paper flower, white, clean, and innocently sitting on top of a newspaper.

* * *

 **[ Author's Note ]**

Alright, I didn't proofread/edit this, so feel free to point out any typos or other mistakes I missed.

I didn't expect this chapter to go this long. Since I'm not yet done writing the latter half, and this is a good spot to end the first half without interrupting the flow, I'll leave it here.

Next update's on Friday!

 _💌  
_ _\- Lia -_


	4. CHAPTER 2(2)

**[ (Short) Author's Note ]**

If you can spare some of your time, please do check out this story in Wattpad too. I'm thinking of entering this in a contest. c: Thank you and please enjoy this (rather long) chapter!

* * *

 **[** _ **02:**_ **Ninjas Don't Always Finish the Job ]**

Inside her mailbox was another paper flower, white, clean, and innocently sitting on top of a newspaper.

Sachan felt like a robot running on emergency fuel. She trudged along the rooftops, even occassionally tripping over loose plates and falling flat on the roof. She dreaded seeing the result in a mirror. Her feet had its own agenda, and after jumping from roof to roof with no energy nor conscious goal in mind, she realized she was once again on her way to the Odd Jobs. She sighed, berating Waki-san in her head for not giving her some mission she could drown herself in.

Stopping at the roof of the building right across Snack Otose, she watched Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi - and the dog, who stopped following after some steps - noisily trudge down the stairs. Sachan raised an eyebrow at the petite woman they were following.

 _Their client, perhaps,_ she thought. When she saw another two figures trailing behind the Odd Jobs, dressed as ordinary ninjas, she pouted. _If they needed ninjas, they could have talked to me._

After carefully mulling over her options - "carefully" meaning "barely three seconds" - she followed after them, walking and leaping from rooftop to rooftop. _I'm sure they don't mind the extra shinobi help,_ she decided.

As it turned out, they didn't need her help and she lost the urge to help out. Their client had wanted help with cleaning a warehouse, in the middle of a forest, and needed people who weren't as lazy as the previous workers she had. Shinpachi and some unfit volunteers - Sachan had to wonder why there were volunteers - were in charge of the grounds. The ninjas' job was to clean and fix the ceiling and the roof. Gintoki and Kagura were sort of in the middle, helping the fitter ones in moving stuff from place to place and going to the upper floor to help the ninjas when needed.

" _Very_ shinobi-like," Sachan muttered, her tone laced with sarcasm as she stared at the ninjas in their positions on the walls and attached to the ceiling. She scrunched up her nose at the dust flying about and coughed lightly.

In the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of the client turning to her. "You there," the woman called. Sachan looked away from her and scowled at the wall. "If you're here anyway, quit being rude and help out."

Sachan sighed, wondering about her strange lack of energy. On other days, she would be jumping around, following Gintoki, getting shoved aside, and helping out. She would be a noisy, masochistic, bundle of sunshine.

But she had woken up empty that day, her body running on reserve fuel and the everyday urge to glimpse Gintoki's face.

"Hey, I'm talking to you."

The client's voice was nearer now. Sachan's stomach coiled with unexplainable wariness at the woman. With her brows furrowed, she turned to meet her gaze.

To Sachan's confusion, the woman's earthy eyes eyes burned with the distaste and anger of a vengeful spirit. They bore into her own squinted gaze, sending a strange foreboding chill up and down her spine.

As much as she hated to admit it, Sachan felt condemned.

Folding her arms, she mirrored the client's upturned lips and furrowed eyebrows. Sachan asked as carefully as she could, "What's your problem?"

That might have seemed ruder than she intended, Sachan realized as the shadows casted on the other woman's features deepened further.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Quit being annoying and help the ninjas up there," she said, pointing up.

"If I don't want to?"

"Then _leave._ "

Her words, coated with finality and disdain, struck a nerve in Sachan's memory. For a second, the woman in front of her was an older man commanding authority and respect, wearing the same face and saying the same words as––

 _Stop._ Sachan shook her head. Meeting the woman's eyes, she shrugged and muttered, "Whatever."

Sachan strode to the wall farthest from the woman, intent on breaking away from the strange darkness she wore. And, especially, away from the memories that beckoned at Sachan's mind, wanting to break free.

In the next several hours, she forced her usual sunshine out. She ran and jumped around, helping the workers by carrying the smaller boxes. At other times, she climbed the walls to help a few ninjas reach certain areas. She laughed and talked loudly, adding to the jovial atmosphere the Odd Jobs had already instilled.

Still, deep inside, Sachan knew she shouldn't be there. Ever since morning, she was only a copy of the new identity she built in the past few years. Hollow, weak, and fake. She walked around with a grin on her face and emptiness in her chest. With every laughter she gave, a small part of her shriveled away.

"Ah, Sachan-san, watch out!"

Sachan stopped in her tracks. A plank fell in front of her. As Shinpachi ran towards her, she heard an apologetic yelp from above.

"I'm so sorry, Sachan-san. I accidentally pulled too hard on the rope he held and–"

She raised her hand to stop him and smiled. "It's fine," she said before glaring up at the ninja who dropped the plank. The guy yelped out another apology. "Freelance ninjas shouldn't be this incompetent."

Shinpachi chuckled awkwardly. "Well, if it makes you feel better, most of them are actually ninjas Satsuki-san had brought with her from the countryside."

Sachan raised an eyebrow. "They worked for her before this?"

"Yeah. That's all we know, though," he paused, fiddling with his glasses, "she only said she had ninjas working directly under her. She said it would make work easier while the pay remained hefty. That actually made Gin-san accept the job more readily since we'll have 'less work and more pay', as he called it."

Sachan nodded, mulling over the odd information Shinpachi had shared. "And the other ninjas?"

Shinpachi blinked. "I thought you knew them? I heard some of them talk about you."

Sachan's eyes narrowed. "What did they say?"

"Err, something about what a renowned assassin was doing here, of all places."

At the semi-compliment, Sachan nodded and folded her arms, her questions satisfied. Noting her mood change, Shinpachi smiled and gestured behind him. "Then, Sachan-san, I got to go. See you later."

Sachan nodded and Shinpachi waved as he jogged away.

Then she let out a relieved sigh as tension left her shoulders. Sachan mentally thanked Shinpachi for pulling her out of her thoughts.

She didn't mind the occasional mishaps Kagura would "accidentally" make and annoyance Gintoki would show at her - which was acceptable because she always found an opportunity to disturb him - but she was grateful that Shinpachi treated her politely. It helped balance her life into a kind of normalcy.

With Shinpachi's words in mind, she studied the people busying themselves within the warehouse, trying to group them by their appearances. Certainly, most of the ninjas wore black-themed hakama. The rest wore a variety of clothing, and Sachan assumed those were the ones that knew her. Glancing to the black-themed ninjas, she concluded that they were the ones who worked under Satsuki. The small amount of volunteers looked like everyday citizens.

Not a minute later, as the setting sun poured in from the entrance and seeped into the windows, the client-woman - as Sachan labeled her in mind - called for everyone to stop. Ninjas made their way down the walls while some dropped soundlessly unto the floor. As they jogged to the woman standing by the entrance, Sachan noted the strange aura of competence that wasn't present earlier.

The Odd Jobs passed by her, with Kagura and Shinpachi giving cheerful grins. Sachan didn't follow and only watched them, feeling a strange sickening in her stomach. Client-woman Satsuki met them halfway, leaving the ninjas huddled by the door and blocking the sunlight.

From her place, Sachan couldn't hear what Satsuki and the Odd Jobs talked about. Leaning against one of the massive crates, she watched Satsuki nod and hand them a wad of bills. Her eyes narrowed at the woman's bright, ordinary expression. It's as if the woman she talked to that morning was a figment of her imagination, an apparition from her past born from paranoia.

As the sun dipped deeper over the horizon and bathed everything with gold and shadows of violet, the ninjas and volunteers left the warehouse. Some were in groups, while others alone. After chatting with the Odd Jobs for a moment more, the woman left to follow, bringing with her the rest of the ninjas huddled by the entrance.

Sachan returned her gaze to the Odd Jobs standing close together, staring at the cash Gintoki held in his hands. She walked closer to them. As their mumbling registered closer, she realized they were counting the money.

"Alright, Shinpachi-kun. You and Kagura get thirty percent while I get the seventy. Deal?"

Shinpachi bristled. "Hell no!"

"But Gin-san," Sachan stopped beside them as Kagura tried to reach for the money, "would the seventy percent be enough for the both of us?"

Gintoki turned his head to glare at her while holding Kagura's face back with one hand and the money in the other. "Who said I'm sharing? Get out." With one last push on Kagura's face, he brought one foot behind Kagura's to trip her backward. Ignoring Kagura and Shinpachi's angry shouts, he ran to the entrance. Not a second later, they followed.

Sachan stared at them, chuckling to herself despite the growing disturbance in her gut. As she moved to follow them, a scream ripped through the air.

Her heartbeat skipped. She stood frozen for a few seconds before sprinting out the doorway. As her eyes adjusted to the remaining golden brightness outside, she saw Satsuki run to the alert Odd Jobs. Sachan ran to them, her eyes trained on the woman. She was hysteric, her eyes wide, tears running down her face speckled with drops of red liquid. Her clothes, once a pretty pattern of blue and green, had now a deep red color splattered all over.

Sachan didn't need to be a genius to know what those were.

Satsuki grabbed onto Gintoki, shaking him while crying out bursts of words that jumbled together.

"Please help them! They just– Suddenly there were– All of them are– I only–"

Shinpachi and Kagura tried to calm her down, holding her by her arms, as Gintoki squinted at the direction she came from. Sachan followed his line of sight.

Past a few empty and run-down sheds, on the only pathway in the small forest, was a pile of what looked like human bodies.

Sachan sprinted forward, ignoring the Odd Jobs' calls. Her heartbeat thudded with every step she took, but all she can think about is the clawing sensation in her gut.

Upon getting closer, her breath faltered and she gasped. The iron stench of fresh blood filled her nostrils, only worsening her queasy stomach. Bodies were on top of each other in a haphazard pile, as if the culprits - whoever they were - treated them as mere rag dolls. Sachan's chest twisted as she looked at the wide eyes and gaping mouths of the new corpses, proof of a sudden, horrible death.

She stepped back. Running footsteps resounded behind her, but she didn't look back until she felt a warm presence beside her. Turning her eyes to the side, Sachan looked at Gintoki, his face rigid and red eyes trained on the sight in front of them.

"What the hell..." she heard him mumble.

She heard a gasp and she turned her head to see Shinpachi stop running. His face paled and he retraced his steps, rushing to the bushes. Before he started vomiting, Sachan turned back to the pile of bodies.

Taking a deep breath, but nearly hurling due to the vile stench, she closed her eyes and rubbed her arms. Willing herself to calm down, she tried to make sense of the situation. She thought back to when the sickening gut feeling had started.

She squinted. _That morning... At the warehouse... That woman...?_

With a gasp, she opened her eyes, scanning the bodies once more.

 _No way,_ she thought, shaking her head.

Gintoki shifted beside her. "Miss, what exactly hap– Huh?" At his confused tone, she turned her attention to him. He looked to Kagura. "Where's the woman?"

The young redhead shook her head. "I don't know-aru. We outran her, and suddenly she disappeared. What's going on, Gin-chan?"

"That's what I want to know."

Sachan turned back to the bodies, gulping as her gut twisted further. She flitted her eyes from body to body. As she did so, with every passing second, her confusion and suspicion grew.

 _None of the bodies have black clothing._

Sachan stepped back, about to turn to Gintoki to report when she glimpsed a strange white object tucked in the shirt of the topmost body. She paused, narrowing her eyes to try to recognize it. But since she couldn't, she stepped forward, the nausea in her gut deepening.

Once she was at least a meter away, her eyes widened.

It was a wilted and bloodied paper flower.

Sachan trembled as apprehension and paranoia rocked her body. Her blood boiled. Sachan didn't know what she was feeling. Fear? Disgust? Shame?

She didn't know. All of them coiled and fused in her gut, clenching her chest.

She wanted to scream.

"Oi, Sachan?"

Sachan jolted. She stepped forward and with quick movements pulled the flower out. The blood on it stuck to her palm, its petals wet and limp.

 _I don't know. It can't be._

"Oi."

Stepping back, she curled her fist as tight as she could, crumpling the already dead flower. It's as if she wanted to squeeze the blood out, to squeeze the life out. Her heart slammed against her ribcage, shouting at her, warning her.

She shook her head and clutched her chest, ignoring the press of the flower on her shirt. _It's not them. It's not them._

Hearing footsteps nearing, Sachan flinched and turned to the forest, running away into the darkness.

"Sachan!"

"Sachan-san!"

 _It can't be them._

* * *

 **[ Author's Note ]**

I kinda just rushed that last part. Now you know what the title insinuated. ;) (Yeah, I kinda thought it was cool.)

How was it? Are you guys starting to be wary of the paper flowers or more weirded out? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to review, fav, or follow this story. I'll also reply to your questions in case there were some unclear parts (which I don't doubt because I didn't edit this).

Please do check out this story in Wattpad, too! Your engagement and support is greatly appreciated.

Stay tuned, guys. It's gonna get even weirder from here on out, lol.

Ehem. Sooo, see you guys next Tuesday!

 _💌  
_ _\- Lia -_


	5. CHAPTER 3

**[** _ **03:**_ **Smiles Don't Always Do the Trick. ]**

 _"No funny business, alright?" Sachan's dad said, ruffling her hair as he bent down to her level. "And don't stray away from your brother." He glanced to and nodded at Hisato, who stood a foot behind Sachan, before smiling at her._

 _Sachan grinned, looking away._

 _Her dad chuckled, lightly pinching her cheek. "There's something funny about that grin."_

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _He pinched her nose. "Nevermind. Go have fun."_

 _Sachan smiled before frowning, as if remembering something. She tilted her head a bit to one side. A worried frown creased on her forehead. "Will grandmother be alright?"_

 _Her dad stayed silent for a few seconds, staring into her eyes. A small smile remained in his features, but Sachan couldn't tell what it meant. He brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear and said, "Yes."_

 _A bright smile returned to Sachan's features. Relief filled her at the thought of being able to still see her grandmother when they return._

 _From behind her, Hisato patted her hair. "Let's go."_

 _Sachan's dad glanced up - likely towards Hisato, Sachan assumed - before gazing into her eyes again. He locked their pinky fingers together, smiled, and kissed her forehead. "Toodles."_

 _Sachan giggled, before stepping back and letting Hisato hold her hand. With her free hand, she waved her fingers ridiculously. "Toodles!" She laughed, not caring that it's the only sound in the courtyard._

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 _Sachan ran through the village, laughing and giggling as her brother trailed after her. She led him from place to place, buying one food here and another one there. The innocence of their bond seemed to contrast the dull bustling of the village._

 _About a few hours later, Sachan noticed this. Halfway through munching a dumpling, she looked around. Aside from a few people turning their heads at the two of them before looking away, the village seemed... normal._

 _She looked up at Hisato, who also seemed to notice. With an eyebrow raised, he was studying the people around them._

 _Sachan tugged at Hisato's hand. "What's going on?" she asked._

 _He looked down at her and shrugged. "I wonder."_

 _She blinked up at him before watching the people again. She shrugged too, before pulling his hand, leading him farther into the village. Her eyes scanned the building around her, looking for the familiar house of one of her playmates._

 _Spotting a two-story red-roofed house, she grinned and quickened her pace. People were crowding around the entrance, some with their head low and some with their eyes blank._

 _Sachan blinked in confusion, staring up at some of the women. She felt her brother pull at her hand, maybe to stop her from being rude, but she kept staring. One of the women, whom she recognized as her friend's aunt, met her eyes. She smiled softly before standing up. "I'll call for you."_

 _Sachan followed her back curiously while a heaviness slowly tugged at her chest. She heard crying from inside the house. The amount of uneasiness around her made her nervous. She gripped her brother's hand before following after the woman._

 _"Aya," her brother called after softly, but she ignored him._

 _Making her way to the door, she stopped in her tracks._

 _Wakikaoru, her friend, paused in her tracks, halfway to Sachan's direction. But it wasn't her that caught Sachan's eyes._

 _It was her friend's mother, laying on a bed behind her with a cloth covering her face._

 _It was the sadness that seemed to engulf the house like a smell that wrenched the air from her lungs._

 _She froze in her steps. Her friend rushed towards her, and hugged her tightly. Sachan felt tears seep into her shirt, but she herself was blank._

 _She didn't know when she left the house, but later she found herself walking through the village, with Hisato holding her hand and leading the way. And then, as she looked around, she found many more houses with the same sullen villagers and the same mourning cries resounding from within._

 _How did she not notice? Her face fell._

 _While passing through the market street, her brother bumped into a woman carrying a basket of vegetables. She and Hisato paused and bent down to help her gather the items, with Hisato apologizing for bumping into her._

 _The woman only nodded, as if in a trance, not even looking at them. Sachan felt her chest tighten._

 _She picked up a spinach and turned to give it to the woman, but the latter stood up and walked away. Sachan blinked before going after her, carefully holding on to the vegetable. Once near the woman, she called for her. "Umm, excuse me_ –! _"_

 _The woman walked on, as if not hearing her._

 _"Excuse me, onee-san!" she called louder. Finally, the woman stopped and looked back at her. Sachan's heart swelled at her blank eyes. "You left this," Sachan said, holding the vegetable forward between them._

 _When the woman made no move to get it, Sachan nervously looked up. Her eyes widened when she saw the woman's eyes soften. She bent down and took the vegetable out of her hand and whispered, "Thank you."_

 _Forgeting her nervousness, Sachan grinned. "No problem."_

 _The woman froze, staring into her eyes._

 _Sachan's smile faltered in confusion. "Umm_ – _" She was cut off by a hug. Sachan blinked in confusion, looking up at Hisato who caught up to watched from the side. "Miss...? Is something wrong?"_

 _She felt the woman shake her head. "It's nothing. It's just..." The woman let go and faced her. Her eyes, which were dull before, now bear a slight watery shimmer._

 _"I haven't seen a smile like yours in a long time."_

 _Before Sachan could ask, the woman stood up, nodding at Hisato before she left and blending into the crowd._

 _"Let's go home, Aya," Hisato said, taking her hand and leading her towards another direction._

 _Sachan nodded silently, her eyes lingering on the direction the woman went to._

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

 _Sachan narrowed her eyes, confused at the lack of guards at their gate. The few guards that were there looked antsy and fidgety, as if they wanted so bad to leave their posts. Once she and Hisato stepped into the gates - with the latter silently following her - they spotted a couple of servants turn a corner and into the hallway leading inside, carrying blankets and bottles she couldn't identify._

 _Her heart drummed in her chest. Without a second thought, she ran after them. "Wait, Aya!" Her brother followed her, and in a few seconds he caught up._

 _Sachan's mind went blank, and throughout the confusion and running in the halls, all she can think about is her grandmother._

Grandmother, please be safe.

 _In barely a minute, they arrived near her grandmother's room. Servants huddled by the doors, whispering between themselves. As she took in their solemn faces, Sachan's heartbeat seemed to stop._ No. _She shook her head._

 _She heard someone hold their breath behind her. Turning her head, she saw her brother look away, his face tight and his eyes guarded._

No.

 _Sachan ran, pushing past the servants and ignoring her brother's calls. Some people turned towards her with panic in their faces, trying to hold her back. Nimbly, she dodged every hand and entered the room._

 _Then all her energy disappeared._

 _Her grandmother lay on her futon, surrounded by paperflowers laid out around her bedside. She was silent, and tears gathered in Sachan's eyes when she didn't see her grandmother's chest rise or fall. Her mom, knelt beside the futon, turned her head towards her. The woman's eyes were red and tired, with trails of tears still apparent on her pale face._

 _Sachan hurried to her mom's side, reaching for her grandmother's thin hand. It was still warm. Barely warm._

 _"Grandmother?"_

 _Her grandmother's eyes shifted. The movement was so small, but Sachan grabbed on to the hope it brought her. When the old woman's eyes opened enough for Sachan to glimpse her eyes, she found herself holding back a sob. Words also left her. She didn't know what to say. Should she grieve? Should she plead for her to hold on?_

 _Sachan waited for agonizing seconds as her grandmother's eyes found her. When her grandmother's eyes found Sachan's own and a small smile pulled at her thin, pale lips, Sachan lost control of her tears._

 _Her grandmother only looked at her, saying nothing._

 _Confusion and desperation whirled in Sachan's thoughts. She felt her grandmother compel her to do_ something _. But all she could think of was her grandmother's dying smile, her grandmother dying, and her grandmother._

 _Blocking out the whispers around her, Sachan gazed back at her grandmother's eyes. Those eyes, brown and without the sly shine she admired since she first laid her eyes on them, beckoned her. Beckoned her to say something, to move, to do something. Her tears clouded her vision, and she closed her eyes, scared._

 _Behind her eyelids, images of the village swirled and whizzed by. Children laughing, others crying, and the rest dull. Their eyes were blank and dead. Villagers were crying and sick and dying on their beds._

 _The images faded and replaced each other, until Sachan remembered the woman who thanked her for comforting her. For smiling at her._

 _So Sachan opened her eyes, her naive mind filled with the only thing she knew what to do._

 _She smiled at her grandmother. It was a frail and desperate smile, and Sachan doubted it looked pleasant in the eyes of others. She even tasted salt from the few tears that licked her lips._

 _But she paid it no mind, because through her tears she knew she saw the smile in her grandmother's face widen even a little bit. She knew she felt the hand she held pull lightly against her palm._

 _She knew she saw all of that before her grandmother's eyes closed and hand fall limp._

 _And as her senses returned and registered the grieving cries in the room, her mom's arms around her and her brother's hand on her head, she gazed up at the man across the room. The man she failed to recognize when she entered._

 _Her dad's gaze lingered on his mother's body, silent. Calm. His face held no clear emotion, no sign of acknowledging the death of his own blood on the same room he stood in. As if sensing her stare, he turned to her and Sachan froze. Her breath caught on her throat._

 _It was the first time she saw her dad's cold and dull eyes. Violet as she remembered it, but darker, it seemed, beneath the shadows of his silent gaze. She stared back until her dad turned away, walked past them, and left the room. She couldn't understand why, and she couldn't bring herself to ask. But she knew she saw it._

 _She knew but she wished she didn't._

 **. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

The hand shaking her shoulders seemed to push harder. Stirring, Sachan groaned and swatted the hand away.

"Sorry," a voice said above her, worry and confusion laced in his tone. She recognized it to be one of her co-ninjas. Sachan blinked away the dots in her vision. Sitting up from her slouching position beside a table - Sachan realized she must have fallen asleep on it - she yawned and stretched.

"Um, you were crying in your sleep," he continued.

Sachan froze, quickly reaching for her face. Sure enough, there was a faint wet trail down her cheeks. She glared at him - or where she thought he was. _Where's my glasses?_

"Uh, here." A blurry hand appeared in front of her. Recognizing the red outlines of her glasses, she grabbed it and hastily put it on. "Was it a nightmare?"

Turning to the guy crouched near her - who she disappointedly noted as ordinary and not eye-catching whatsoever - she scowled. Her brain raced with excuses she could use to get him off her business.

She hummed. "Possibly. I mean, Gin-san was–"

The guy raised both of his hands. "Uh, okay. It's fine. You'll be alright." With a weird look on his face, he turned away.

Sachan stared at him, amazed at how her undying love for Gintoki had reached her acquaintances. _Wow, I'm incredible,_ she thought.

Shrugging, she looked around at the ninjas milling around. Since Matsudaira wasn't present in the room, she figured their mission still wasn't officially over. Resting her chin on her hand, she slouched on the table again. Her thoughts muddled together, ranging from missions and assassinations, to the weight of the flowers in her bag.

In the early hours of that morning, Sachan had woken up from a bothersome dream of a childhood of playing tag in the courtyard with her brother and some of her friends. It was a relatively normal dream though - considering the nightmare of corpses the day before - which is why she found herself scowling at another paperflower she had received in her mailbox.

At least she received a notice from Waki, too. Thank heavens for the mission.

Still, the mission only served as a distraction for a good twelve hours before she apparently fell asleep again to another damn dream.

Sachan rested one hand on her bag, letting her thoughts wander to the four paper flowers she had "collected". She cursed. _Why did I even bring these?_ As far as she knew, one of them, the first, was already half-wilted. She guessed that the rest were already on their way to dying too, or at least crumpled and mushed in their stuffed position in her bag.

As much as she wanted to leave them behind, Sachan felt they were meant to remind her of something. Whoever was sending her the flowers, a symbol of her clan, knew her history. They wanted something from her.

Also, as much as she wanted to ignore it, though the paperflowers weighed as much as a chest filled with bones and dead bodies, it compelled Sachan to not leave them behind. Even for just a day.

 _Damn it._ She scowled, pushing away the heaviness in her gut. With one hand, she rubbed at her eyes to remove the little dry bits that some people called "morning glory". _But it wasn't morning, so maybe 'evening glory'?_ she mused.

As she thought about it, the door slid open with a bang and a loud voice boomed. "Alright, brats! Time to get your asses home!"

She flinched and blinked at Matsudaira while other ninjas scrambled around. "Commander, not too loud!"

"The old governor asshole's dead so it's time to relax! Party!"

"Commander!"

As hilarity ensued, she let herself laugh and blend in.

People moved about the room, chattering in controlled voices - whatever volume they were talking in was overshadowed by the Commander's voice - as they picked up their things and left the room.

It didn't take long for Sachan to follow, having only brought one bag with her. She mingled among them, trailing behind as they jumped onto the roofs and made their way to the station.

She was about to jump up after them when Matsudaira called her name. She paused and turned to face him, an eyebrow cocked in curiosity.

Matsudaira, in contrast to the hilarity mere moments ago, wore a tense expression. His eyes silently bore into hers. "Have you heard about the dead ninjas found yesterday?"

Sachan's eyes narrowed. The respect she had for the Commander pushed her to not waste time. "Yeah. I was there."

Had Sachan looked away for a second, she would've missed the slight glint in the Commander's eyes. "Do you have any clues as to who was behind it?"

If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was suspicious of her, but Sachan knew he was only being careful. She shook her head. "No, sir, my apologies."

There was a pause before Matsudaira shrugged. "Alright. Let's leave it at that for now. Go."

Confused, Sachan didn't move for a while, but as Matsudaira shooed her away, she ignored her confusion and jumped up.

Landing crouched on the roof, she fiddled with her bag. A gentle breeze blew against her and thread through her hair, as if brushing her thoughts away. The coolness of it slowly coaxed her nerves unfurl. She took a deep breath and then exhaled. Standing up, Sachan gazed at the stillness of the night, with only the stars watching her and no ninjas jumping over the rooftops. She was alone.

The town they were in was quaint, with thatched roofs, minimal night patrols, and few streets bustling with night life. The rustling trees surrounding the town - and occasionally jutting out within the town - with the soft, rolling mountains in the background, completed a night portrait that reminded Sachan of the peaceful past. Once she located the train station, Sachan walked along the roof, taking her time. Maybe it was due to the nap she had taken, but she felt relaxed. She was in no rush to do anything.

In the distance, she glimpsed faint lights within a small village. She stopped and squinted, trying to recognize it. As realization slipped in, she bit her lip. Her gaze flittered between the station and the village in the distance. Unconsciously, her hand clutched the bottom of her bag, where the flowers lay.

As the wind picked up and blew through her air, Sachan covered her face and smiled bitterly. _I must be drunk,_ she mused. Walking and then speeding up her pace, she jumped towards the building across the street, ignoring the confused squeals of the villagers below her. She jogged and jumped from roof to roof, making her way to the village.

 _If I'm not drunk, then I really am stupid,_ she thought.

* * *

 **[ Author's Note ]**

Had this up at Wattpad on Thursday but forgot to upload it here haha. Anyway, how's that little insight on (my version of) Sachan's past? Thoughts are very much appreciated!

I'm not too sure about when the next chapter will be up since I'm moving into the dorms and starting freshman year next week (OTL), so I'm changing the update schedule to **weekly** now, with the days being sporadic.

But the next chapter WILL come! See you when I post it. c:

 _💌  
_ _\- Lia -_


End file.
